Jason Phu

Jason Phu

b. 1989, Sydney, Australia
Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia

 

Jason Phu’s multi-disciplinary practice brings together a wide range of, sometimes contradictory, references from traditional ink paintings and calligraphy to mass-produced objects, everyday vernacular to official records, personal narratives to historical events. Working across drawing, installation, painting and performance, the artist frequently uses humour as a device to explore experiences of cultural dislocation.

Phu studied at COFA, Sydney graduating with honours in 2011 and also studied at NSCAD, Nova Scotia. Phu’s work has been informed by several China-based residencies at CAFA, Beijing; DAC Studios, Chongqing; and Organhaus, Chongqing. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Australia including Westspace, Melbourne; CCAS Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra; and ALASKA Projects, Sydney; ACE Open, Adelaide. Last year (2018) he showed in the Dobell Drawing Biennale at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Burrangong Affray at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and Primavera 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Phu is represented by Chalk Horse, Sydney and Station Gallery, Melbourne

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Artworks

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“it took us so long to get here, and now there’s no way back, we could break the glass, but we would be shattering our vows.”

“shutup you idiot, we’re a ghost. we haunt this park, dont ever picnic here again or ill take your phone and wallet and sandwiches”

“be as strong as a mountain and as fluid as a river they said. they were wrong, the mountain was a mound of old tv monitors and the river was a dry bed of ox bones”

“in a time before, i was made of stone, and was the toughest thing around. now they have diamonds and steel and metals mined from asteroids. diggers and dynamite carve through me like a seatbelt on a summers day on naked salty skin.”

“im gonna smash your head in with this hammer and my big muscles that this magical forest gifted me”

“love is hard enough without all the distractions, the sand, the desert lizards, the bodily fluids and the feeling like someone is watching you, you will never find love.”

“we don’t eat little children but we do feast like medieval kings in dusty old oil paintings”

“how did you find this place, it doesn’t even exist within a dimensional plane, it is beyond your understanding, it is more than you can handle, it is outside the range of emotions you could ever conjure.”

“where is my home but here? i am a cat that has forgotten how agile it is, caught in an alleyway between two cars playing chicken.”

“if you ever see us in your reflection it means you won’t get a good nights rest. we snore and burp and fart and walk and talk in our sleep, but most of all we cry because none of this is real and these aren’t our beds and we just want to go home”

“i recently took some recorder lessons so i could be more popular at parties, the ancient bamboo flute i usually play summoned the ghost of christmas past, a real party pooper.”

“imagine being the eight dragon kings of all the seas with all the power of the forces of nature and mystical powers of everlasting life and wisdom of the ages and still drowning in your own soup of feelings and left-on-read messages.”

what we used to be, where we used to go #1

what we used to be, where we used to go #2

what we used to be, where we used to go #3

what we used to be, where we used to go #4

what we used to be, where we used to go #5

what we used to be, where we used to go #6

what we used to be, where we used to go #7

“I WAKE FROM MY MIDDAY NAPS WITH A TERRIBLE THIRST” #1

“i had a nap and had a nightmare. when i woke up i was still hungry.”

“I WAKE FROM MY MIDDAY NAPS WITH A TERRIBLE THIRST” #2

“the lake dried up and all the Fish died”

“people who are drunk say stupid things that sound like stupid things”

“give me 30 years to learn some stuff ”

“two turtles in love is called a twortle”

“I WAKE FROM MY MIDDAY NAPS WITH A TERRIBLE THIRST” #3

“i walked 10,000 k’s to find you, the roses i brought are wilted, the dried out stems, i wear as a coat”

“in the end even the worms don’t win, the owls pluck them out during the midnight summer rains.”

“i forgot everything i learnt in highschool”

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst"

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #2

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #3

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #4

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #5

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #6

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #7

"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst" #8

"woah, that was a really big meal"
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >

CV

Born 1989, Sydney, Australia

Lives and works in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia

Education

2013
Commenced Masters of Fine Arts (Research), University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts
2011
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts
2009
Fine Art Exchange, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2019
I was born under a stone mountain, STATION | Melbourne
Procession in the warming light/Procession in the rising darkness, Sydney Opera House, Art Assembly
 Commission, ANTIDOTE Festival, Sydney
Real Real #5, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW

The faces of Guanxiu’s sixteen friends, the luohans of his feverish dreams, Vermillion Art, Sydney 

I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst, Chalk Horse, Sydney
2018
By Hand: Rediscovering the Art of Printmaking, De La Salle, College of Santi Benilde, Manilla 

In the past there were moments of peace, in the future there will be less, when we died there is sleep, Alaska
 Projects, Sydney 

My parents met at the fish market, West Space 2017 Commission, presented at ACE Open, Adelaide

The fruit was sweeter then, the fish were more plentiful, Alaska Projects, Sydney
2017
My parents met at the fish market, West Space Commission, Melbourne 

A shrine for the horse headed god of safe travels and a shrine for the pig headed god of celebration, Underbelly Arts Festival, National Art School, Sydney
Lesser saints and the demons they carry, Art Fairs Australia, Barangaroo Commission, Sydney
Love in all its facets exists in hell. Gonoharea, Syphillus. Chlamydia ring my bell, Art Fairs Australia, Sydney Contemporary Commission
. . .

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2019
Jason Phu in Footscray, Due West Arts Festival, Melbourne
Funny dumb weird haha cardboard mask workshop, Kid Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary
Videos of my parents, Prototype, online video
Our Common Bond, May Space, Sydney 

Stop Peeping, Cement Fondu, Sydney
2018
Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
The Burrangong Affray, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
Meditations on a bone, Heide Museum of Art, Melbourne
Brett Whitely Scholarship Show, Brett Whitely Studio, Sydney
Thinking it through, Peacock Gallery, Sydney
Invitational Show, Home@735 Art Gallery, Sydney
Bowerbird: Clinton Bradley and the Art of Collecting, Western Plains Cultural Centre, NSW
Play Back Dobell Drawing Biennale, AGNSW, Sydney
Auto Body Works, Arts Project Australia, VIC
Human Jerky, Verge Gallery, Sydney 

ICI, Alaska Projects, Sydney 


Awards, Scholarships, Residencies

2020
Animal Logic Studios Artist-in-Residency, Sydney (forthcoming)
2019
Gertrude Contemporary Studio Program, Melbourne

Artist in Residence, Newington College, Sydney
2018
Mark Silverberg Editions Lithography Residency, Chiang Mai, Thailand
. . .

Collections

Art Gallery of NSW

Bathurst Regional Gallery
Art Bank
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"I wake up from my midday naps with a terrible thirst"

Jason Phu
28th February - 23rd March 2019